2026 Municipal Elections: In Alès, the Left Would Like to Take Revenge and Block the Far Right

In the northern Gard region, the Alès sub-prefecture is playing almost the same political role as its big sister, Nîmes. Here too, a new chapter is being turned. Elected since 1995, the very popular mayor (Les Républicains, LR) Max Roustan, soon to be 81, is not standing for re-election. In this city located at the gateway to the Cévennes, the political parties are preparing for the next municipal elections with undisguised hopes.

The left has been dreaming of revenge against the right for thirty years in this former mining town, a communist stronghold from 1965 to 1989, on the left until 1995, when Max Roustan snatched victory by around a hundred votes. He has since been re-elected each time in the first round, but lost his seat as deputy in 1997, and again in 2012, to left-wing candidates. On March 15, to better anticipate his succession, Max Roustan ceded his seat to his first deputy, Christophe Rivenq (LR), also head of the Alès Agglomération community of communes and the 71 municipalities that comprise it.

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